Intro to Fashion

This will more than likely be my first installment of many on my personal style and clothing choices.

As some of my readers may know already, I like clothes. A lot. I also like a variety of different styles of clothes. And even fashion styles I wouldn’t personally wear, I can usually appreciate for the very fact that they at least are well put together. What you wear on the outside can convey many different things about your personality, so I feel it is important to choose your personal style and do it well. I respect anyone committed to their outfit or fashion style.

Fashion styles I like:

Steampunk, Lolita, Cyberpunk, Goth, Pin Up, Post-Apocalypse, Haute Couture

I walk around and observe what people wear. I also take mental notes of what my coworkers wear. I like seeing the different trends unfold even if I don't participate in them. Usually it is obvious someone cares about their clothes as they will have a pretty well defined day-to-day style. My work clothing style is admittedly pretty bland, generic and office worker-y. I very purposefully wear simple and modest clothing to work. I do not want to stick out (I already have long green hair and my height for that thanks), I do not want to look sexy, and I do want to convey a sense of typical and normality.

Why would I do that? Well, my job calls for conformity and I like to keep my work and personal lives separate. I am pretty outspoken, so I use my clothes to try to detract from that fact. I think I’m pretty hot, but the workplace is not the appropriate venue for showing off your goods and trying to get a date. There is a time, a place, and an outfit for everything.

Here’s me in my normal boring work attire today. Gray pants, black shirt, black shoes. Purposefully boring.

Now, just because I want to convey a certain message with my clothes does not mean I have to dress in something unflattering or something I hate. This is something I slowly had to come to learn myself. I used to wear work clothes I normally wouldn’t be caught dead in on the weekends. Either they weren’t my style at all or they were totally unflattering. The key is to figure out what your style is and apply the right level of it to where you are going. So if you are goth or steampunk, you can’t usually come to an office job in full Kit, you have to tone it down a bit. There’s almost always a way to water down your style to make it applicable to the venue.

Full Steampunk vs. Steam Office

 
Left, I am wearing too many belts for this to be a passable work outfit for a professional office environment. I'm also wearing boots which I think would be pushing it. The shirt, vest & skirt would be alright though. And minus the vest wouldn't be bad at all if I got too hot. The skirt is wool, so that's totally a possibility

Right (and I know this isn't the best quality picture), I am wearing an outfit that I'd normally accessorize differently if I were wearing it for a steampunk event. The jacket is black with white pinstripes (I love pinstripe) and is great for steampunk. I usually pair it with a skirt though when I'm not wearing it to the office. The top is a simple black tank that can pretty much go with anything. And the black stretch pants I'd usually wear with a bunch of unnecessary belts for steampunk but didn't here. 





Basically, work steampunk for me usually means discarding a lot of accessories and dressing more conservatively. I also don't wear skirts to work, but that is a personal choice that I don't like showing my body off at work.

As you can tell, there’s always some way to incorporate your personal style into everyday clothing. Just be sure the clothing fits your body and fits your style and you should be an awesome and confident well dressed person!

Since this is only the first entry on this subject, I will leave it at that. Think of what style you want to convey and start slowly buying pieces that you feel comfortable in. Then you can slowly filter out those articles of clothing you just hate (or even are just reluctant to wear) replacing them with awesome clothes.